Two British companies are using analytics technology to undermine that very British of pastimes: queuing.

Firstly, aerospace engineering giant BAA is working to reduce the time passengers must wait for a taxi at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5, which opens in March 2008.

BAA is extending a system that allows airport staff to monitor taxis as they arrive at and leave the airport. Handheld devices scan RFID chips inside the taxi, which identify both the vehicle and the driver.

This will allow the airport to model and predict demand and supply of taxis, and therefore reduce the time new arrivals must queue for a car. The system, developed for BAA by IT services company Steria, is expected to have tracked more than a million taxi movements come the 2012 Olympics.

Meanwhile, runaway supermarket chain Tesco is currently developing a system that uses thermal imaging to calculate the optimal allocation of checkout staff to reduce queues.

The system will analyse CCTV footage of both the tills and the store and predict likely queuing patterns in the coming hour. It will then allocate staff to tills – or to the shelves – in such a way as to minimise waiting times.

Tesco intends to have the system up and running by the autumn of 2007.

Further reading

The science of winning - advanced analytics - January 2007